latteqpon

Will be staying at a number of protea / african pride hotels in Feb '17 as well. Starting with a week at the African Pride 15 on Orange in cape town, and then a night in @ Protea Kruger Gate before we go into Kruger for a few nights. And Finally ending the trip in Protea Fire & Ice at Melrose Arch in Johannesburg.

Anyone have suggestions on my hotel choices? am i better off at a different hotel in cape town?

I transferred points from SPG to Marriott. The point value of these hotels are amazing,

sdsearch

Oh, gosh, I'll be there around the same time! But because my first night in Cape Town in Feb 10, and all the Proteas there were demanding nonrefundable points (or cash) for that date, I went with one of the Radisson Blu near-the-waterfront locations. After Cape Town I'm doing the Garden Route and staying at the Protea in George along the way and then a few nights at the Protea in Port Elizabeth, then later on I'll be up near the Kruger Gate area and splitting my stays between the Kurger Gate Protea and the Hazyview Protea. I'll be in that area on Sun Feb 26 for the partial solar eclipse (it's fully annular up in DRC, but up there it seems to likely to be rained out, while near Kruger there seems more likelihood of clearer skies).

But this is my first time in Africa period, so I have no experience with these Proteas either.

Afta-Noon

Does anyone have any experiences or anecdotal reports of what Marriott Gold members receive at African Pride hotels upon check in? Room Upgrade? Breakfast?

Thanks!

sdsearch

I can't swear about African Pride, but from what I've read here: In general no one (not even Plats and superPlats) gets free breakfast at any Protea that doesn't offer free breakfast to all (which appears to be is a small subset of them).

Jaimito Cartero

If anyone has a list of Protea hotels that do provide breakfast, that would be good. I've got stays near the end of the year, and of course breakfast would be good.

sdsearch

All of them provide breakfast.

Did you mean a list of which provide breakfast for free? (Providing breakfast for a price is still "providing breakfast". There are some hotels in the world that don't provide breakfast even for a price!)

Search Google for "Protea hotels with free breafkast", and you immediately find Livingstone, Chipata, and Lusaka (all in Zambia) showing free breakfast as an amenity. Then on page 2 I see Ndola (also in Zambia), and Zanzibar Mbweni Ruins (in Tanzania).

(Read the search results carefully, of course, since Google is sometimes finding "free" apart from "breakfast".)

Offhand I don't see or know of any in South Africa. All the ones in South Africa I've looked at seem to charge around $12 to $15 USD for breakfast.

NotJustDreaming

latteqpon,
How did your trip go?
We're going to South Africa for one month and I'm eyeing a long list of 7,500 and 10,000 point Protea hotels.

Adam1222

I was there earlier this month and stayed at 4 Protea properties.

Protea Cape Castle (Cape Town): A bit dated, got upgraded to a large suite as a MR Gold member. Had a full kitchen. Very limited facilities (small restaurant, small pool, no gym). Location is walkable to the Victoria Junction and some of the stuff in De Waterkant, but not as centrally located. Felt like a dated Courtyard.

Protea Victoria Junction (Cape Town): Very modern, nice gym; I had been upgraded to a Loft level room (showed in my reservation), but then they un-upgraded me and just had me in a Superior room, which was fine. Location a bit more central, on the edge of de Waterkant. Supermarket and mall across the street. Close to the CBD. Shuttle to V&A waterfront, but also walkable (long walk). Big restaurant,

African Pride 15 on Orange (Cape Town): Gorgeous property; reminded me of a W. Small pool on the roof, small gym on the roof. Upgraded to a large room with a perfect view of Table Mountain; luxurious. Walkable to Kloof Street and the shops and cafes, but not as close to the CBD, more residential neighborhood.

Protea Balalaika Sandton (Johannesburg): old, old, old. The property is huge. It's a not easy walk from the Gautrain, and then once on the property, it was literally a 7 minute walk to my room from check-in, through 2 other buildings. The gardens and pools are nice, but the rooms look like they are out of 1993. No recognition of elite status at all, no bottles of water. Can walk to Nelson Mandela Square during day, but nothing around at night.


If you have specific questions about any of these, let me know.

NotJustDreaming

Thanks Adam,
I'll keep that in mind when I get to the Cape Town reservations. Much appreciated.
Though maybe I won't have questions after reading your blog.

NotJustDreaming

Adam1222,

Interesting posts on your website. Great info.

With regards to the Prokard Explorer, did those BOGO stays earn Marriott Rewards? Aside from the klunky booking site, was it easy to redeem those vouchers for what you wanted?

Adam1222

I hope to update my blog with more detailed reviews of the property, but it will take some time.

Redeeming vouchers was weird, as availability for the Cape Town properties varied a bit over time, but I ended up getting exactly what I wanted. I had to contact Marriott Rewards to get them to add my Marriott Rewards number to each reservation. They had to manually look up the reservations which was hard. Alternatively, I had also asked one hotel to do it via email which worked.

I did receive Marriott Rewards points for the BOGO stays, based on the amount of spend, and got night credits for each night.

NotJustDreaming

I'm looking forward to your update.

This is part of our year RTW that we start this July. Our month in South Africa is slotted for May 2018. I see the Prokard vouchers expire one year after issue.

Of course, I'll have to wait to purchase enrolment until closer to 2018. Given we'll be on the road, do I need the physical voucher or is it just a code?

We're a family of five (two rooms almost everywhere, sigh), so two separate memberships would be ideal cost wise. Did it seem the hotels only had one room available for vouchers?

(Different last names on two separate Prokard and Marriott accounts.)

Adam1222

You cannot search for more than 1 room, so you'd have to book one, then the next. (And cancel if there wasn't availability.) Also note you cannot use two e-vouchers consecutively.
It is neither a physical voucher nor a code, they are just placed in your account and you click on the appropriate "voucher" to book.
For 5 people, I'd be surprised if Airbnb weren't more cost efficient.

UPDATE: I found this PDF guide to booking https://www.prokardexplorer.com/wp-c...step_guide.pdf

sdsearch

I stayed a 7 Protea properties on my recent South Africa trip, and in building style they were really all over the place. Every Protea I stayed at seems to have been built independent of any others, as if they were may have been all independent hotels at the start which later coalesced into a chain.

The Protea in George, for example, was a two-story couple-dozen-room "motel" with no elevator (but interior corridors). In USA terms it reminds me of the layout of many a Days Inn or Sleep Inn or something like that, but the breakfast was better (the breakfast seems somewhat standarized at Proteas in South Africa), tho not at all free (in fact, a bit expensive compared to the cheap room rate).

On the other hand, the Protea in Port Elizabeth was a high-rise business hotel.

On the third hand, the Proteas at Kruger Gate and Hazyview were lodge-styled with exterior walkways to the rooms. They were also two stories with no elevator, but laid out more like a safari lodge than like a motel (while the George property defnitely felt like a motel in layout terms). The breakfast at these two seemed to be included in most of if not all paid rates, but I'm unclear about reward stays, since mine were paid stays.

Happy

Protea Kruger Gate ONLY sells half-board (breakfast and dinner) and full-board. Award room is ROOM Only - clearly stated in the Room Rate description online and may even be on your confirmation.

Protea is not a chain like a HGI or Hanpton or HIX that have Built-for-Purpose by the international chains, It is a South African brand that has its primary properties in South Africa but also in other African countries. It has never been a cookie-cutter chain hotel.

The building styles largely depend on which market the property serves. You would not expect Protea Kruger Gate / Hazy View being built like the property at Port Elizabeth, right?

Even at resort towns it still varies by the "class" of the resort, even on the same famous Garden Route.

Go compare the Protea at Knysna and the Protea at Morssel Bay - the former is much bigger and higher class versus the latter is far more basic.

Go take a look of the Arabella Hotel and Spa - it is a Protea hotel and see how that property is laid out.

WHY would one expect a FOREIGN brand would have the same development plan / methodology as the international chains the Americans know it?

Even for the international chains, the SAME brand would have very different look outside US, and even in the same Continent, they still look quite different. HIX, Hampton and HGI are very good examples.

Would you be surprised to see a HIX more like a full service hotel than what you see here? Or Hampton has 5 stories and again like a set up of full service hotel than the Hampton in US?

What the US travellers who prefer "known brands" need to learn about is, DO NOT expect a brand standard when booking a familiar name overseas. Do some research so would not be caught by surprise on anything differs from expectation, that even includes service standard.